Speakers vs Children Dilemma!

[admin_exported]

Im sure Im not alone amongst the What HiFi readers in that I have kids. The eldest is still only 2 & a half but already he's showing great interest in shoving his fingers through the cones of my speakers. (boo hoo - sob sob!)

Im currently running an old pair of Linn speakers that sound pretty good but Im not very attached to. I expect they'll hit the skip soon enough. My main speakers were a pair of Mission 705 towers that I loved. (were, because Ive just sold them) These beasts really are large speakers and I figured its only a matter of time before they get knocked over and hurt somebody. Either that or I'll enter the room to find a child sitting contently on top of one of the speakers having just used the cones as foot holds to assist with the assent to the summit!

So my dilemma....

Who has any good ideas on how to child-proof a speaker set up? Im thinking smaller floor standers with covers on when the kids are around. Im even thinking perhaps book shelf speakers that are wall mounted out of reach. Is this a recommended way to mount speakers? I thought not but apart from the height of the speaker I don't see why not.

Any good suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

Dave

 

[chebby]

Razor wire and trained attack dogs.

 

[drummerman]

elkiem:

So my dilemma....

Who has any good ideas on how to child-proof a speaker set up?

Dave

In-ceiling-speakers. Simples

 

[jaxwired]

I've got a 3 year old and a 4 year old. My system is in a spare bedroom which doesn't see that much activity during the day when I'm at work, however, when they were 1 and 2, I did have poked tweeters TWICE! Now however, they both know that "this is Daddy's toy", so they better not touch. And they don't, they know better. When I see one reach a hand toward anything, I make a big fuss and scare the curiosity right out of them. At this point, they walk past my system all the time and never touch anything. And trust me, it's the only thing in my entire house that doesn't take constant abuse. So, what I'm saying is a little tough love goes a long way and you can train them not to touch. However, for the under 2 year olds, you have to just guard the stuff or you'll be facing dented tweeters or worse.

As for the safety issue, it's a legitimate concern. I didn't do anything special, but I never felt my particular speakers posed that big a danger. If you are worried, you should definately look into placing small speakers out of reach. What else can you do?

Good luck , it's worth it...

 

[shooter]

I used Epos 12.2 when my kids were in that mood!

They have detachable metal grills that fixed well, blu-take'd down on to some filled (concrete) Partington stands.

Sweet!

 

[Alonso73]

elkiem:
Im sure Im not alone amongst the What HiFi readers in that I have kids. The eldest is still only 2 & a half but already he's showing great interest in shoving his fingers through the cones of my speakers.

So my dilemma....

Who has any good ideas on how to child-proof a speaker set up? Im thinking smaller floor standers with covers on when the kids are around. Im even thinking perhaps book shelf speakers that are wall mounted out of reach. Is this a recommended way to mount speakers? I thought not but apart from the height of the speaker I don't see why not.

Any good suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

Dave

Hi Dave.. Im at a very similar situation that you're in. We're about to have a 2 year old little girl come into our lives and speakers are a concern in terms of damage (to the speaker and to the little person)

Some posters have already mentioned "tough love" but that is not always practical/feasible at a certain age (specially toddlers) but later on maybe.

I have a pair of floor standing Motives 2 which are not only light and on spikes (making them easy to topple) but also they have exposed and very very tempting inverted dome titanium tweeters!

My solution before she understands that titanium tweeters are too expensive to replace monthly? Shelf speakers (on shelves!)... of course, they will not sound as good as a well spaced floor standers but that will have to do for now. Unless of course you are lucky enough to have

a) Very (Bottom) heavy floor standers with metal mesh covered drivers*

b) Standmounters bolted/glued to their stands and these bolted/glued to the floor, again with metal mesh covered drivers*

* I say metal mesh because in my experience cloth grilles (unless backed by a plastic grill) do not stop fingers from going all the way through a tweeter/driver

In my particular case what I did was to buy a pair of empty (satin white) Motive 3 (book shelf sized) enclosures (my speaker's little brothers with the same drivers and same crossovers ) and simply transfer the electronics. I will build special shelves (W20cm x H20cm x D30cm) and bolt them against the wall. I will then paint them with the same emulsion I did the room in and they'll just look like a pair of cubes sticking out of the wall, same material and feel. I hope the cube like dimensions will make them aesthically pleasing, if not, it is a temporary measure till she grows out of tweeter poking... Of course, Ill brace the the interior of the cube and stuff it with hard packing foam, lets see what this all does to the sound signature... In terms of height, I think 90-90cm off the floor will be enough to keep them safe and they'll still be at ear level when sitting down, in fact, they'll be better positioned height-wise, than the original floor-standers (whose enclosers will rest in the loft till more peaceful times come!)

 

[Anonymous]

I was always worried about the metal stands for my speakers. Don't forget the electronics - a small child will quickly learn how to operate a CD player drawer etc.

I was operating tough love as soon as my son could walk at 10 and a half months. Now he wakes us up going to bed at 3AM - he's just had his 19th birthday.

 

[Anonymous]

Nothing beats a bit of early learning! Teaching them not to touch from an early age seemed to work for us. In fact there was more damage done when a teenage nephew backed in to my stand mounts and craking the case than anything done by my kids as they grew up!

 

[dave_k]

Headphones.

 

[drummerman]

Play Yamato drummers at full wick when your little one crawls past the speakers the first time.

They probably won't get close again for years, the lounge that is. You've created me-space.

 

[Big Chris]

chebby:Razor wire and trained attack dogs.

..And limpet mines.

Seriously though, whenever my 3 y.o nephew is around, the grilles go back on. I take on board an earlier statement that cloth grilles don't necessarily protect speakers, but in my experience an anonymous grille doesn't draw kids like an unprotected driver does.

 

[scene]

Big Chris:
chebby:Razor wire and trained attack dogs.

..And limpet mines.

Seriously though, whenever my 3 y.o nephew is around, the grilles go back on. I take on board an earlier statement that cloth grilles don't necessarily protect speakers, but in my experience an anonymous grille doesn't draw kids like an unprotected driver does.

+1 on that...

... Backed up by the threat that any damage to the speakers will be recouped by the sale of the little ones' favourite toys to the value of the damage. They love their toys, and I love mine...

 

[AEJim]

If you had the budget you could try some Shahinian floorstanders as they put their drivers on top of the cabinet, very nice speakers but you're not likely to even find second-hand ones for less than £1k

*Edit, just looked on the popular auction site and they do have some Shahinian Compass speakers, very nice but £1200

 

[Anonymous]

child fences on the entries?

 

[John Duncan]

Keep the grilles on. Secure them to the floor as well as you can. Accept that, when you have children, some of your prized possessions are in danger but that they are, after all, only loudspeakers, and children are more important. If they're so prized that they simply can't be replaced, then find somewhere to put them where they can't be damaged, even if that means that you have to compromise sound quality etc. If sound quality is so important to you that you can't bear that compromise, don't have children.

 

[Anonymous]

JohnDuncan:Keep the grilles on. Secure them to the floor as well as you can. Accept that, when you have children, some of your prized possessions are in danger but that they are, after all, only loudspeakers, and children are more important. If they're so prized that they simply can't be replaced, then find somewhere to put them where they can't be damaged, even if that means that you have to compromise sound quality etc. If sound quality is so important to you that you can't bear that compromise, don't have children.and if you dont want children, then dont.......

 

[drummerman]

JohnDuncan:

... they are, after all, only loudspeakers, and children are more important.

Reading this thread, are you really sure there john?

 

[John Duncan]

umm....

 

[jiggyjoe]

Have a look at monitor audio's radius range all the drivers are protected behind metal grilles and some models are designed to be hung on the wall.

 

[ID.]

jiggyjoe:Have a look at monitor audio's radius range all the drivers are protected behind metal grilles and some models are designed to be hung on the wall.

Wall-mounting the kids might also be effective, but probably illegal.

 

[scene]

ID.:
jiggyjoe:Have a look at monitor audio's radius range all the drivers are protected behind metal grilles and some models are designed to be hung on the wall.

Wall-mounting the kids, might also be effective, but probably illegal.

Yep, someone got done for duct-taping their kids to the wall earlier this year... I've already had to discount that option

 

[Anonymous]

If they are expensive, and or you only use them for serious listening (hence not wall mounting etc), you only need watch the speakers whilst listening to them. Try a cardboard box that goes over them when not in use which is tied to the feet etc with laces - you could do a blue peter job and make one that fits perfectly over the speakers and is even cloth covered. A child won't be tempted to poke cardboard.

 

[micks_address]

i'd second the radius hd range.. they look and sound great.. and so far have survived my kids.. the only thing i worry about is the cloth grill on my rsw12, but apart from getting a bit dusty.. it seems to have survived well so far.. my last sub had yogurt spilled on its grill and stained it so spolied (soiled) the look.. as the kids get older they are not so bad.. i remember when our son was about 2/3 he used to have great fun taking the viewing card from the sky box and hiding it! nothing a bit of tape didnt sort though (on the view card)

jiggyjoe:Have a look at monitor audio's radius range all the drivers are protected behind metal grilles and some models are designed to be hung on the wall.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everybody that replied to this thread. There are some very useful replies!

A couple of you mentioned metal grills to protect the speakers....can you buy these or do you have to modify the existing grills yourself?

 

[jiggyjoe]

The metal grilles on the Monitor Audio Radius speakers are factory fitted. Have a look on Monitor Audio's website.